Both patients passed through Entebbe International Airport on October 3, according to Wessam Mankoula, head of emergency preparedness and response at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). Health officials say it has not been established whether the two encountered each other or whether any transmission occurred at the airport.
Nigeria's Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate confirmed an imported Ebola case in Abuja involving a woman who had recently traveled to East Africa, including Uganda. "Today we are confirming that there has been one imported case of Ebola virus disease in the Federal Capital Territory," Pate said. The woman developed symptoms on October 7 and visited a private health facility on October 11, where laboratory testing confirmed Ebola. She has been isolated for treatment. Pate said she was stable and that officials had identified 44 contacts, including healthcare workers, caregivers, patients and people who may have encountered her during travel.
Uganda's Health Ministry said preliminary findings indicate the woman traveled to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo for business before passing through Uganda without symptoms and returning to Nigeria. "Travel through Uganda does not establish that infection occurred here. The location of exposure remains under investigation," the ministry said in an October 20 statement.
Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs directly disputed that account. "She and her husband did not travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo," the department said in a statement to Reuters. Swiss authorities, who identified the woman as a Swiss national of Ugandan origin married to a Swiss diplomat based in Abuja, told Reuters they believed she contracted Ebola while traveling with her husband in Uganda, although that assessment has not been independently confirmed. The World Health Organization and the Africa CDC said they had not received confirmed information establishing that the woman traveled to the DRC.
In Kenya, the country's first confirmed Ebola patient died in Nairobi on October 5 after traveling from the DRC through Uganda. The patient also passed through Entebbe airport on October 3. Kenyan authorities have reported additional infections linked to the initial case and are searching for a Ugandan national identified as a contact. "We know him by name and passport number and from his phone but we are not able to reach him," Kenya's Director-General for Health Patrick Amoth told the Daily Nation. The man was using a South Sudanese telephone number, complicating the search. An untraced contact is not necessarily infected, but locating potentially exposed individuals is essential to preventing further transmission.
Ebola cases have now been detected in four African countries: the DRC, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria, although Uganda says it has no confirmed active infections. People infected with Ebola are not considered infectious until symptoms appear, which typically occurs 2 to 21 days after exposure, according to the WHO, so border screening cannot identify every infected traveler. Uganda says it is strengthening screening and public health controls at points of entry, while Nigeria has intensified contact tracing and infection prevention measures.
In Abuja, the confirmed infection has revived memories of previous Ebola outbreaks. "So here is my hand sanitizer, so I'm actually very concerned about it," resident Peace Kolawole told DW. "Because now people are not even worried about sickness anymore, people are worried about surviving," Abuja resident Jonathan Steven said.